"Hurry up! A lot of people died in here," Denji stood at the doorway, panic written all over his face. Arata and Aki Hayakawa quickened their pace and rushed inside. The three of them entered the ramen shop together.
The sight before them was even more horrifying than the last one. There were ten corpses in total. But their state of death was slightly different from the skeletal remains in the other ramen shop. The heads and necks were perfectly preserved, while the rest of their bodies had been stripped down to bare bone.
"This time they didn't pick them clean. They left the necks," Aki pointed out immediately.
"They ate so many people, obviously they couldn't finish them all, so they left the necks," Denji grumbled.
"Devils don't get full. Leaving the neck was clearly intentional," Arata corrected him.
"Intentional? What are they trying to do?" Aki asked. As an experienced Public Safety Devil Hunter, he genuinely felt Arata was far from simple. Just a quick glance and he spotted details Aki had missed.
"Not sure yet. Let's keep looking around," Arata said.
The three of them walked forward a few steps and simultaneously noticed the ramen sitting on the dining tables. Steam was still rising from the bowls, and the noodles inside were completely untouched. The words "Thanks for the meal" were written in blood on the tables. The only difference from the previous shop was that this ramen didn't have any cilantro sprinkled on top.
"Leaving all this ramen uneaten is a massive waste." Denji clutched his growling stomach and sucked back a mouthful of drool.
"What is that?" Aki's eyes lit up as he quickly walked over to the cash register. Sitting right on the counter was a bright red apple.
"An apple? Can I eat it?" Denji immediately stepped up and asked, his eyes never leaving the fruit.
Eating the ramen on the tables felt a bit too sketchy, considering there were corpses hanging upside down right over the bowls. But an apple sitting at the cash register should be fine.
"I've never seen such a strange apple. Arata, come take a look at this," Aki said, gripping the apple tightly. He intentionally kept his right hand as far away from Denji as possible.
"It is pretty weird. So shiny and red, it almost looks like a prop." Arata didn't take it, just giving it a quick glance.
"But can I eat it?" Denji asked desperately.
"Eat my ass. Obviously you can't eat a weird apple like that."
"I can't eat this, I can't eat that, I'm gonna starve to death!" Denji complained. He came here to eat, but kept stumbling into crime scenes. "Whatever, I'm going to the kitchen to look. I refuse to believe this shop doesn't have anything else to eat." With that, he turned and walked into the back kitchen.
But not long after, a scream shattered Arata and Aki's train of thought. Whoosh! The two of them rushed into the kitchen, only to find Denji slumped on the floor.
"Where is the devil?" Aki drew his katana and scanned the room.
But Denji just mumbled, "It's gone... it's all gone."
"What's all gone?"
"The food. All the food is gone. This ramen shop doesn't have a single thing left to eat."
"Food!!! I thought you saw a devil!!" Aki roared in anger.
Beside them, Arata's expression suddenly grew tense, as if he'd just realized something. "This is bad. We need to hurry back to the first restaurant." Before the other two could react, he ditched them and sprinted toward the first ramen shop.
On his way back, he bumped right into Noriyuki Natsume, who was just walking out of the shop. "Why are you back? Don't tell me you've got a thing for human corpses too?"
Arata ignored Natsume and barged straight into the shop. A moment later, Aki and Denji followed closely behind, chasing him into the first ramen place.
"Why are you guys running around one after another? Did you eat a dine-and-dash because you have no money?" Natsume joked.
To his surprise, those two ignored him as well and rushed right inside.
"Hey, these Division 4 guys are pretty weird. They were just laughing and joking, and now they're giving everyone the cold shoulder. Are they playing hard to get?" Natsume muttered.
"Captain, should we go in and take a look?"
"Yeah, I want to see what exactly they're up to," Natsume said. "You guys stay out here and keep an eye on him. I'll be right out."
Meanwhile, Arata was standing in the back kitchen, tearing through the cabinets and boxes. He found that every single ingredient in the ramen shop had vanished. A newly opened restaurant should have been fully stocked, but it was completely empty, which was incredibly strange.
"Arata, what is it? Did you find something?" Aki could tell Arata had figured something out and quickly walked up to ask.
Only Denji looked completely disdainful. Not letting him eat was bad enough, but making him run back and forth was torture. He dragged his exhausted body to the side, not caring at all about who the killer was.
"The ingredients in both restaurants have completely vanished. This devil doesn't just eat people, it eats all the prep stock in the shops too," Arata explained.
"I've never heard of a devil with an appetite that massive," Aki said.
"Screw the devil, when are we finally gonna eat?!" Denji shouted.
"Hey, what are you guys doing acting all mysterious back here?" Natsume suddenly appeared behind them.
"We're looking for clues."
"Clues? So what did you find?"
"So far, just an apple." Aki pulled the bright red apple out of his pocket.
"An apple? I've got one of those too." Saying that, Natsume reached into his pocket and pulled out an identical apple.
Arata's eyes were instantly drawn to it. "Where did you get that?"
"It was on that guy. He was carrying it with him."
"Shit, we need to get outside right now."
Looking panicked, Arata didn't wait for a response and sprinted out of the shop once again. Aki and Natsume exchanged a glance and immediately followed. Only Denji sat off to the side, his eyes glazed over.
By the time Arata ran out of the shop, Natsume's two subordinates were already slumped on the ground, dead asleep.
"Heiji!" Natsume hurriedly crouched down to check on his men.
"They're not dead," Arata said.
"So you're saying that man from earlier was the devil who killed everyone," Aki stated.
"I don't think it was him." Arata rubbed his chin.
"Not him? Then who else?"
"Not sure yet, but it's definitely a powerful devil, and that ramen shop owner definitely knows something about it."
"Alright, then I'm calling Himeno-senpai immediately to have her issue a wanted poster," Aki said.
"Hey! When are we eating!!" Denji's complaining voice rang out from behind them again.
Aki shot Denji a look, genuinely feeling from the bottom of his heart that Denji was entirely unfit to be a Devil Hunter. Arata, on the other hand, had completely exceeded his expectations. If he could only keep one of them, Aki hoped it would be Arata.
Seeing that their lead had gone cold and Denji was still whining about food, Arata finally suggested, "Why don't we go buy some ingredients and eat at your place?"
"Why do we have to go to my house? Can't we just find a random place to eat?" Aki asked.
"We've hit two restaurants in a row that completely ruined our appetite. We desperately need a cozy place right now."
"Fine. Honestly, I'm tired of running around too. Drive to my place, I've got enough ingredients at home to feed you two rookies." Aki gave in and stopped arguing.
"By the way, you know how to make ginger pork, right?" Arata asked.
"I do."
"Denji, once we get to Aki's house, have him teach you how to make that dish."
"Huh? I don't wanna learn that."